Merger News

[SBN580]

Yes, I think Alaska runs a pretty tight ship and have no interest merging with anyone. I had a meeting with a senior VP at Alaska back in the summer. Wow, talk about stark, I couldn't believe how simple their reception area was at their head office in SEA. When I sat with the senior VP, I was asked if I wanted some water, I watched as the VP reached over to a case of 24 water bottles on the floor and handed me one.

Their mantra was all about cost containment and I did have to respect that based on what I witnessed.

I think they tried very hard quite a few years ago to analyze down to things like the width of a slice of pie served aboard....and yet maintain their quality of service. They were trying to get ahead of the cost cutting curve.

 

[777 / 767 / 757 Love]

You are one to talk. What do you have to offer other than sticking up for this failure of a management team?

If you did not like the content of the article, the author's contact information was listed at the bottom of the article. I'm sure you contacted him to tell him how wrong he is, and how all of the airline analysts have it wrong and this whole thing will be a disaster....right? So, what was his response? Or, do you just keep your "expertise" limited to this obscure web site?

Maybe we can change the subject to all of the long term successes of AA's inbred management team.

FAILURE financially. BILLIONS in losses. BANKRUPTCY.

FAILURE in the Pacific. An afterthought behind UAL and DAL.

FAILURE in Europe. Once again, DAL and UAL trounce AA.

FAILURE at ORD and BOS. Massive shrinkage.

FAILURE in NYC. Getting humiliated by DAL. Billion dollar terminal with no feed in JFK.

FAILURE in SJU. Hub gone.

FAILURE in employee relations. All employees effing HATE management.

FAILURE in rebranding. Paid millions for ugly-ass paint job. Can't wait to see the new Village People uniforms.

Yeah......good times.

Maybe we can start a betting pool. Winner has to guess the next market we will cede to competitors and pull out of. That Tombstone plan is such a winner.

Good riddance to this management team. Hope the door doesn't hit them in the ass on the way out.

Can't argue with what you said, but I will say anyone who tells me how aweful and stupid the AA team is and in the same breath argues that Parker and company will be better is completely out of touch with reality.

I'm not saying you said that, just making the point, that if you hate AA maagement for their past, you got to be braindead to then turn around and argue for Parker by ignoring his past.

Cheers,
777 / 767 / 757

 

[777 / 767 / 757 Love]

His ego was thinking I need to leave a lasting impression of my short time as CEO. Too bad the impression is that he is a damn moron who is apparantly color blind and devoid of one ounce of taste! Good riddance, he can't be tossed out on his butt fast enough. Even to this day he is slowing the inevitable merger. So much for doing what was good for AA and it's employees. LIAR!!!

I see what you did there, you took your assumption (that the merger is good for both airlines) and made it fact, thus making Horton's actions contratry to that "fact" as a behavior contrary to the employees best interests. Newsflash, the people pushing for this merger will be long gone with their money before the mess that is left may further erode employees compensation and benefits.

Cheers,
777 / 767 / 757

 

[737823]

Good luck finding mechanics up there. AA has vacancies. Eagle had helped Boston remain staffed but that well has run dry.

Really? Seems nearly every time I fly to MIA there are many mechanics commuting onboard that were displaced from BOS but still own homes and have families situated up here that can't pick up and move to MIA.

Josh

 

[IORFA]

Alaskan??

I know. I wish people would figure out their name is ALASKA.

 

[IORFA]

I see what you did there, you took your assumption (that the merger is good for both airlines) and made it fact, thus making Horton's actions contratry to that "fact" as a behavior contrary to the employees best interests. Newsflash, the people pushing for this merger will be long gone with their money before the mess that is left may further erode employees compensation and benefits.

Cheers,
777 / 767 / 757

No different than your misguided and uninformed "opinion" that it isn't good for both companies and employees. It just isn't good for Tommy Boy. Thus the heels in the sand and kicking and screaming. Doesn't change the fact he picked a terrible design and is out of touch with his employees, customers and reality.

 

[UPNAWAY]

I wish people would figure out their name is ALASKA.

Ha, I work many a year for American Western!

 

[737823]

"Damage?" Really?

I recognize that you and I live in complete different universes, but I can tell you that some of the most ardent proponents of organized labor I run into are young. I don't mean the sort of trust fund dilettantes that roll around in Che shirts - I mean genuine people that recognize where the middle class is at vs. where it needs to be, and posses real solutions on how to get there.

They also are doing a helluva job waking up those that fell asleep at the wheel over the last 10-15 years.

The idea that all of those you've noted will somehow magically stay in place w/o a counterbalance is a fallacy. All one has to do is look at how fast things like Act 10 in WI, and the RTW laws in MI were rammed through to see it. There's nothing to say that other workplace laws/rules couldn't see the same fate.

P.S. Not for nothing, but labor *still* champions those items you listed.

Yep damage. Organized labor takes for their own at the expense of non-union workers, shareholders, business owners through outrageous demands and onerous restrictions.

I think we live in the same universe but with different perspectives. If these brilliant young labor activists that you speak of are so great, why haven't they turned the ship around? The reforms on public employee pension benefits, collective bargaining restrictions, right to work laws is only accelerating as has the erosion of union membership.

Josh

 

[jimntx]

I see what you did there, you took your assumption (that the merger is good for both airlines) and made it fact, thus making Horton's actions contratry to that "fact" as a behavior contrary to the employees best interests. Newsflash, the people pushing for this merger will be long gone with their money before the mess that is left may further erode employees compensation and benefits.

Cheers,
777 / 767 / 757

No, I took the fact that Horton is opposed to the merger (because he doesn't get to be in charge in the new regime), and decided that if TH is agin it, then I'm fer it. The man redefines liar for our generation.

 

[Kev3188]

I think we live in the same universe but with different perspectives. If these brilliant young labor activists that you speak of are so great, why haven't they turned the ship around?

It took 3+ decades to spiral down to where we are today. Expecting reform to be instant is unrealistic...

 

[Super FLUF]

Can't argue with what you said, but I will say anyone who tells me how aweful and stupid the AA team is and in the same breath argues that Parker and company will be better is completely out of touch with reality.

I'm not saying you said that, just making the point, that if you hate AA maagement for their past, you got to be braindead to then turn around and argue for Parker by ignoring his past.

Like you, I am not going to argue with anything you said. The bottom line is, this management team has had multiple chances and they have blown every single one of them.

They treated the employees like crap, and the employees turned against them.

They had the chance to put forth a bold, stand-alone growth plan. They didn't. Instead we got the same ol shrinkage and outsourcing plan.

They had a chance to introduce a visionary rebranding. Instead we got a third-grade paint job that they paid millions for.

If they would have treated the employees with some modicum of respect and put forth a bold plan, we would not be debating this right now.

Like I said, they only have themselves to blame.

 

[johnny kat]

72823:

Yep damage. Organized labor takes for their own at the expense of non-union workers, shareholders, business owners through outrageous demands and onerous restrictions.

I think we live in the same universe but with different perspectives. If these brilliant young labor activists that you speak of are so great, why haven't they turned the ship around? The reforms on public employee pension benefits, collective bargaining restrictions, right to work laws is only accelerating as has the erosion of union membership.

Josh
____________________________________________________________________

Yep Josh,

Just give it a few more years. When all of the baby boomers are in full retirement and broke because the 401K myth turned out to be worse odds than Vegas.

Thanks to the Reagan years when it became fashionable to do away with those ol' pension plans most companies put aside for their workers, because they were expensive and also lauded by the unions. So as the unionized workers where being demonized and demoralized by those crazy republicans they were also being ripped off.

So, as the millions of boomers set in front of a space heater eating a can of soup and wondering how to keep the lights on. I'll bet a few will be thinking how different their lives would be if they only had that defined pension money that the generation before them got.

And when the government realizes that it is going to have to foot the bill to support the millions of boomers anyhow, a few people in DC will be wondering what it would have been like if only the boomers had those defined pension benefits coming instead of having to rely on the government for every kind of assistance.

So, as industry took the money in those pensions (Hostess brands/Frank Lorenzo) and enriched management at the expense of the working stiffs. You have to ask just who got stiffed? The answer: the workers, the government and the tax payers.

Sooner or later someone in the labor movement is going to be smart enough to ues the above scenario to convince the workers and government alike that unions really do have a very important roll in improving the lives of the average worker and society in general. And unions will come roaring back.

On a side note, i'll bet those foreign workers who were employed when the US jobs were shipped to their shores, will be doing fine in old age because the countries they live in will be taking care of them (socialism style).

So, thank you rebublicans and thank you R. Reagan (sarcasm)

 

[jimntx]

He probably won't notice until his parents have to move into the guest bedroom because they can no longer afford to live independently. I expect there will be much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by the younger generation when they learn that all these "shareholder value enhancement moves"--such as doing away with pension plans--turn out to be nothing but executive wallet enhancements.

 

[eolesen]

Like you, I am not going to argue with anything you said. The bottom line is, this management team has had multiple chances and they have blown every single one of them.

To be fair, it's not the same management team. You've got a lot of people in C-level positions that weren't there two years ago, and a lot more people in SVP positions who weren't there two years ago.

Y'all can personalize Horton as an Arpey clone, but I don't see it that way.

He's made all the tough calls that Arpey didn't have the stomach to make. Gerard wanted to be liked. Tom doesn't give a damn. And honestly, it's not his job to be liked. It's his job to turn the company around.

Had Horton been empowered two or three years earlier, and been able to accomplish what's been done in the last 14 months, you'd be able to see that. But you don't. You just see your paychecks being smaller, and want to blame Horton for that.

 

[IORFA]

Don't forget that crappy paint job his kid scribbled onto the tail.